


the sentiment of flowers

by cacodaemonia



Category: B.A.P
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-05
Updated: 2013-09-05
Packaged: 2017-12-25 16:57:05
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,319
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/955527
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cacodaemonia/pseuds/cacodaemonia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Daehyun is allergic to pollen. This is obviously why he decides that he should work in a florist's.</p>
            </blockquote>





	the sentiment of flowers

**Author's Note:**

> for [jongbuttbutt](http://jongbuttbutt.livejournal.com/) and [thebrowniebunch fic exchange](http://thebrowniebunch.livejournal.com/)! i'm sorry this is ...not great... but i hope it's alright? ✿
> 
> this is my first ~published~ bap fic so feel free to shoot me ◕ヮ◕ i know i would

Daehyun doesn't _mean_ to do it, see. But Himchan and Yongguk have been trying to convince (read: terrorising) him into getting a job, because apparently eating all of somebody's birthday cake isn't acceptable even if you're a starving, broke university student. Unbelievable, who knew?

And well, the guy behind the counter is really attractive. Totally his style.

The _NOW HIRING_ sign almost hidden within the floral display behind the window is written in cute fat letters, and Daehyun decides that it's an opportune time to take Yongguk's suggestions (threats) to heart. It wasn't like he was allergic to pollen and should avoid a florist's at all costs. What a preposterous thought. Anyway, Daehyun takes a deep breath and- well, that was a terrible idea. He has a sneezing fit  that doubles him over. People on the footpath give him a wide berth.

Tears in his eyes but reasonably recovered, he steps tentatively into the florist's shop.

 

 

"Hello, what can I do for you today?" Attractive Guy Behind Counter asks. _You could go out with me_ , Daehyun would like to say.

"I'm enquiring about the sign in the window? You're hiring?" he says instead. He's trying to breath shallowly through his mouth instead of his nose and it may not be super attractive but he's been informed of the merits of his face enough that he hopes it makes up for it.

"Oh," Attractive Guy Behind Counter's face breaks into a smile and it's just rainbow and sunshine and really gorgeous and Daehyun gives him a gold star sticker and upgrades him to Extraordinarily Attractive Guy Behind Counter. "That's great, I wasn't expecting somebody so soon. I hope you don't mind terribly, but since this is the first time I'm hiring help, I was wondering if you could work for a trial period first? You'll still get paid of course!"

"That's okay," Daehyun says. The Guy's voice is as nice as his face. And hands. "Sounds fine to me."

"Cool," The Guy replies. "I'm Yoo Youngjae, you are?"

"Jung Daehyun."

 

 

Jung Daehyun breathes like Darth Vader. This is faintly disturbing, but Youngjae's been exposed to worse. He looks nice enough (but it's not like Youngjae has ever had good judgment).

Youngjae smiles anyway (if there's one thing _Youngjae is_ good at, it's pretending he's happy).

 

 

"So is there anything I need to know before we start?" Youngjae asks.

 _Yes,_ Daehyun thinks. _Once I went on a biology excursion to the Botanical Gardens and I almost had to go to the hospital_.

"Nup," Daehyun says. "Everything' s peachy." _Just like the time I got Hana-noona flowers for her graduation and sneezed throughout the whole ceremony._

"Okay," Youngjae raises an eyebrow. "Let's get started then, shall we?"

 

 

Daehyun's older than Youngjae by a year, but he says it’s okay for Youngjae to drop the honorifics and Youngjae beams a shy smile at him and says "Okay," and Daehyun beams one right back.

Jongup makes his way into the florist two days after Daehyun. Daehyun's older than Jongup by two years, and he tells Jongup to be his peasant because he is his hyung, and should lord over him, obviously. "Right," says Jongup, and he scrunches up his nose. It's kind of cute, but peasants aren't meant to be cute. Peasants are meant to be stepped on. And crushed. "You go on believing that, hyung."

Daehyun nods sagely. Jongup is an unworthy opponent. "I will."

Youngjae snorts, eyes hidden behind too-long bangs. Jongup is looking at Daehyun like he's a young child who doesn't quite know the ways of the world. Well, Jongup's mistaken. Daehyun may have the intellectual capacity of a five year-old, but his emotional is at twelve, and his physical at eighteen. He averages at pre-pubescent, not toddler, so hah!

"He's not exceedingly bright, is he, hyung?" Jongup stage whispers to Youngjae.

"No," Youngjae stage whispers back. "Probably had to dumb him down so his face was alright."

"My face is great, excuse you," Daehyun says, with a bonus wink. Youngjae looks at him with an amused expression. Jongup bangs himself on the counter from laughing too hard and falls to the floor clutching his knee.

 

 

Youngjae's changing the window display when Jaebum staggers into his shop, knocking over a pot in the process. "Sorry," he slurs, swaying. "Youngjae, I didn't mean to."

"Hey!" Daehyun shouts at him. "What are you doing?"

Youngjae sighs. Jaebum looks precariously close to falling on his face, so he rushes over to steady him. "Don't worry, Daehyun."

"But-"

"I said _don't worry_ , Daehyun. Look, can you just leave us alone for a moment?" His tone is too harsh, and he instantly regrets it, but the damage is done. Daehyun looks at him with hurt in his eyes.

"Okay," he says, walking past them and out the door. Youngjae opens his mouth to call after him, but nothing comes out so he just closes it again. He stares after him, not sure of what to do, until Jaebum tugs at the bottom of his shirt.

"Who was that?" he says blearily.

"Nobody," Youngjae snaps. Jaebum recoils a little. "What are you doing here, Jaebum? It's four in the afternoon and you're drunk? You're a public figure, you can't just-"

"Youngjae," he says, looking at him with dark eyes for a moment before slumping on his shoulder. Jaebum's breath is warm on his neck, and Youngjae stiffens. "Youngjae, I didn't mean to," he repeats.

"Didn't mean to what? Get drunk and mess up my shop?" Jaebum flips his head up and he looks oddly vulnerable as he peers at Youngjae hesitantly.

"No," he whispers. "I didn't mean for you to leave. I didn't mean to ruin everything."

"So you're here to apologise or something?" He looks down,  twisting the fabric of Youngjae's shirt between his fingers.

"I- No. I don't know," he says. His eyebrows furrow as he tries to get out what he means to say. "It hurts, Youngjae. I look at her and she's so happy with him, and it hurts. It hurts to be in love with somebody who's in love with somebody else, and I-"

Youngjae's throat constricts and he chokes out his next words. "You thought that I'd understand?"

Jaebum is silent for a moment, his fingers stilling. "Yes. I miss you Youngjae - I miss my best friend. I miss you being there for me. I love you, you know, just not like- like that."

"I know," Youngjae says, because he does, and he thinks it hurts more than it would've if Jaebum hadn't cared for him at all. "But it doesn't mean that you can come here and expect everything to be okay."

Jaebum tries to stand without the support of Youngjae so that he can look at him level in the eye, but he's unsteady on his feet so Youngjae keeps a firm grip on his hips. Jaebum laughs weakly. "I bet I look really stupid right now. No, I know I look really stupid right now. I'm sorry," he runs his fingers through his hair. Jaebum looks gaunt and tired, his eyes bloodshot and the bags under them like bruises. Youngjae remembers when he used to look the same. "I'm sorry for everything. I shouldn't have come. I just really wanted to see you, for a long time now. It took me a few bottles of soju, though."

Youngjae knocks his forehead against Jaebum's. "I know," he repeats. "You're such an idiot."

"I can't help it," Jaebum smiles. "That's why I had you. But I think I should go now," his hands wrap around Youngjae's wrists and he pulls away from Youngjae's grip. "Bye, Youngjae." Jaebum's fingers are warm as they squeeze Youngjae's lightly. He turns to leave and he's halfway through the door before Youngjae calls after him.

"Jaebum, wait," He looks back at Youngjae pensively as he leans heavily on the frame of the doorway. Youngjae plucks a lonely sweetpea bloom and places it in his hand. "This means thank you for the time we spent together," Jaebum's fingers curl around the flower. Youngjae can't meet his eyes. "And farewell."

When Daehyun shuffles back into his shop an hour later, Youngjae tells him a story. A story about a boy who had a dream, who was stupid enough to fall in love along the way and was unable to recover, and decided to leave his dream behind.

(But maybe it was his dream who left him behind.)

 

 

"Youngjae, which thing am I supposed to use for these?" Daehyun calls out from the back.

"Just a moment!" Youngjae calls back. "I'm with a customer!" Daehyun stares in consternation at all the tools. Wasn't there an all-in-one thingamajig, or something? He was not equipped to deal with-

"Daehyun? What are you doing here?" Yongguk's deep voice rumbles from behind him. Daehyun freezes and so do his thoughts. He breathes wrong and the azaleas in front of him take advantage of his moment of weakness. Youngjae looks surprised, addressing Yongguk as Daehyun sneezes his inner organs out. "You know him?"

"Yeah, I get him to sing for me sometimes, and Himchan likes to keep him around for some reason? But what the hell, Daehyun, aren't you alle-" Daehyun whirls around and pounces on Yongguk, slapping his hand over his mouth. He laughs nervously.

"It's okay! Don't worry! About me! Hyung! I know what I'm doing," he says, the epitome of smooth. Youngjae looks at them with curious eyes and Daehyun slowly removes his hand from Yongguk's mouth. Ew. Yongguk germs. And Himchan ones too, he supposes, but he actually likes Himchan so he can deal with those.

"Okay," Yongguk says slowly as Daehyun wipes his hand on Yongguk's shirt, trying to make his distaste as obvious as possible on his face. "Just don't do anything stupid. Oh wait," he looks at Daehyun and the corners of his mouth quirk up slightly. "Sorry, asking for the impossible. More stupid, I mean."

Daehyun scowls. There's a reason why Himchan's his favourite hyung, not Yongguk. "Don't sass me, you oaf."

"'Scuse you, who's coming to me for help with maths?" Yongguk's grinning fully now, his stupid gummy smile. It's cute on Hyosung-noona, but on him? Disgusting. Absolutely disgusting.

"I hate you," Daehyun mutters. Yongguk had always given off the biggest idiot vibes and it still puzzled Daehyun how he was able to do so well in the world of academia."Jepp Blackman, hah!" he snorts spitefully under his breath. Yongguk's eyes narrow.

"Okay, Mr Allergic-to-pollen. See you guys later. Thanks, Youngjae," he claps Daehyun's back a bit too hard for it to classify as friendly and smiles at Youngjae as he leaves.

Oh god. Daehyun has never learnt how to keep his big mouth shut. His need to ridicule is an endless pit of desire (not unlike his stomach) and it is his undoing. But honestly, was it his fault his hyung's dream was to become a famous black rapper. Seri- That's not the point though, Youngjae's looking at him and he's making weird twisty shapes with his mouth.

"Allergic to pollen, huh?"

"Huh?" Daehyun says, unabashed. "Where did you hear that. Meanwhile, did you hear that I sing. You are my shy, shy, shy bo-"

"It's okay," Youngjae says, cutting off his warbling. "I kind of already realised. Every time you got too absorbed in your work and started breathing normally, you'd have a sneezing fit."

"Oh," Daehyun says. So he _had_ noticed that Daehyun breathed like somebody who hadn't realised that their nose was a part of their respiratory system. "What? Then why are you keeping me around."

"Because I like you," Youngjae taps his fingers on his bottom lip. "You're really amusing, you know."

Daehyun grins. When he's not sure if things are compliments or insults, he takes them as compliments. He's a simple guy, and Youngjae thinks he's amusing. And he _likes_ him. Daehyun is on cloud fucking nine. "Okay," he says. "I'm still in the running, then?"

"Sure," Youngjae smiles back at him. Cloud fucking nine.

 

 

"You've been looking particularly stupid lately," Himchan says.

"Yeah," Jieun chirps, placing their drinks on the table rather ungracefully. "What's up?"

Daehyun sighs dreamily, stirring at the foam on his latte. "There's this boy," he says, and Himchan perks up in his seat. Jieun moves to sit down so that she can perk up in interest as well, but Sunhwa's watching her.

"Don't you dare sit your ass down, Jieun! You just had your break," she calls out with a very pretty smile. It's the one that makes Daehyun's blood run cold and implies murder. Jieun visibly deflates. "Sorry boys, got to go," she huffs. "Fill me in later."

"Back to the boy," Himchan says, when Sunhwa stops releasing her killing intent and they are able to stop fearing for Jieun's life. Daehyun sighs again.

"Actually, I think you know him," he starts. Himchan has the tell-me-more look on his face. Daehyun takes a long sip of his drink.

 

 

Daehyun is actually pretty helpful when he's not busy dying from his pollen allergy. Youngjae wonders if it was a mistake to allow him to stay on - it probably wasn't the smartest decision that he'd ever made, but he had grown fond of Daehyun. He'd told him things that he hadn't really meant to, because Daehyun had felt so familiar and- And he was probably going to give the job to Jongup anyway. It just hadn't seemed like the right time.

_Then when was the right time?_

Daehyun spends his day with his nose in varying shades of red, like it's the middle of winter and 0⁰C all the time, even though it's only autumn. Youngjae can't imagine what he would look like in spring and he laughs at the thought.

"What's so funny?" Daehyun says. His nose is currently a very bright pink. Youngjae clears his throat in an attempt to choke down his laughter.

"Nothing," he replies. Daehyun looks at him suspiciously for a moment, but he shrugs and goes back to work.

 

 

Youngjae's talking to himself as he's moving down the row, cutting flowers for a bouquet. "Thyme for strength and courage, magnolia for perseverance and dignity," Daehyun's learnt surprisingly little of the flower language over the time he's spent with him, but then again, it's not surprising when Daehyun learns little. "Periwinkle for friendship, gladiolus for-"

"Love at first sight," Daehyun interjects from behind him. Youngjae jumps a little and the pruning scissors fall with a clatter.

"Ow," Youngjae says as he whirls to face Daehyun.  "What?"

Daehyun spies blood welling in a thin line on the pad of Youngjae's finger. He rolls his eyes. "You're bleeding, you idiot. Let me see."

Youngjae flushes as Daehyun grabs his hand. "It was your fault! Why am I the idiot?"

"Because," he replies simply before bringing Youngjae's finger to his mouth. Daehyun is a simple person - he believes that anybody who isn't him is an idiot. Youngjae has a tendency to overthink things. Youngjae overcomplicates. Things.

"What are you doing?" he asks, sounding a little breathless.

"Fixing it," Daehyun says around Youngjae's finger. "Duh."

"There is a first aid kit. Behind the counter."

"Oh," Daehyun says, dropping Youngjae's hand. "Right." Youngjae's eyes are big and round and beautiful, and his bottom lip is chapped, like he's been gnawing at it too often. But Daehyun wants to kiss him, and Youngjae is looking at Daehyun like he wouldn't mind being kissed, so Daehyun closes the distance between them. Their noses bump a little, because Daehyun has a big hawk nose that he hates. Youngjae laughs against his lips and then tilts his head so the angle is right, and his fingers curl in Daehyun's hair.

There's a thunk from somewhere to the left of Daehyun. "CANNOT UNSEE!" Jongup yells. "STOP, PUBLIC INDECENCY!"

Daehyun flips him off and Youngjae just keeps kissing him.

 

 

Daehyun looks at Youngjae expectantly, a confident smirk on his face.

Youngjae clears his throat.

"I'm sorry, Daehyun, but I think I'm going to have to give the job to Jongup."

Daehyun stands up abruptly, chair flying back with a little screech. Jongup smiles, triumphant. He shimmies his phone out of his too-tight jeans (who really needs to know how A+ his thighs are, what a twink) and his thumbs are lightning across the screen, _junhongie i got the job owo owo =^.^= \o/_. Daehyun's disbelief is clear on his face and he slams his hands down on the counter. "What? Why not me?"

Youngjae stares at him as if he's stupid. He is, but that's beside the point. He's busy being enraged.

"Well, for one, you are _allergic to pollen_."

"Pshh, details," Daehyun says, waving his hand flippantly. The hyacinths next to the counter decide to attack him and he lets out a violent sneeze.

"And you have a tendency to get side-tracked."

"What does that even mean? I'm pretty sure Jongup gets more distracted than me!"

"Hyung," Jongup whispers loudly, tugging on the back of his shirt. "I think he's talking about when you drag him to the back to make out."

Daehyun waits for Youngjae's refute. It doesn't come. He stares at him, accusatory. "Well it's true," Youngjae mumbles, cheeks flushed a delicate pink.

"See, hyung?" Jongup says with a bright smile. His phone pings, _good job jongup-hyung you won over the asshole !!! ^3^_. Daehyun splutters. _The asshole_?

Youngjae's knuckles rap on his forehead, snapping him out of his resentment. "Stop being so pig-headed, Daehyun. You know this is literally the dumbest job you could've decided to go for. Why did you even, in the first place?"

It's his turn to feel embarrassed now, and that doesn't happen nearly as often as it should because Daehyun is usually a) too stupid and/or b) too shameless. "I, well. Cake. I ate it. Um," he tries.

"Okay," Youngjae says.

"I think he's trying to avoid saying that the reason was you, Youngjae-hyung," Jongup interjects. Youngjae looks at Daehyun, raising his eyebrow at his uncharacteristic silence. "Anyway, hyung. Can I go now?"

"Hmm? Yeah, sure," Youngjae replies absentmindedly.

"Great, thanks for giving me the job! See you tomorrow. Have fun!" Jongup says, leaving in a flurry. Daehyun can feel Youngjae's gaze on him and his face grows hot.

"So the reason was me, then?" Youngjae says, leaning forward. Daehyun shifts uncomfortably in his seat.

"Well. The gladiolus. Um. That was possibly. Me trying to be subtle."

"I was wondering how you'd managed to retain any information," Youngjae does that thing where he taps his bottom lip with his fingers again.

"I might have. Looked up which flowers had something to do with love. Maybe." The look on Youngjae's face is really condescending and triumphant and. He just looks really hot all the time? Youngjae looks surprised for a moment and then he lets out a shy tinkle of laughter. Did Daehyun just think out loud? His (non-existent) brain-to-mouth filter fails him, yet again. Daehyun kind of wants to be an ostrich right now, so that he can bury his head under the sand and preferably never resurface. Maybe it would be better if he was dead. A dead fucking ostrich. That sounded pretty nice.

"I don't like you," he says miserably. Youngjae smiles, the little shit. "No, seriously," Daehyun whines.

"Okay," Youngjae replies, patting Daehyun on his head. He sniffs, incensed. The tulips are vicious in their assault. Youngjae laughs as Daehyun sneezes his nose bright red. He picks a pretty pink flower from a pot near the door. Daehyun recoils in fear but Youngjae beckons, so he leans forward again and Youngjae tucks it behind his ear. "Here, it's a peony. Happy life and marriage. Non-allergenic."

"Oh," says Daehyun, a bit dumbly. "Those exist?"

"Perhaps you should have looked that up instead," Youngjae suggests.

"Shut up," Daehyun says, and he pulls Youngjae in to do just that.

 


End file.
